More, shall we say, inconveniances while travelling

[nxski]

Well, it's not ideal but it will do until I'm home. I spoke with Butch on the phone and he suggested that my sagging torsion bars may have caused all of my suspension problems. He said to crank the torsion bars, check for play in the tie rod ends again, replace tie rod ends if needed, align and get back on the road. I also had an oil change done and tires inflated and supplied all parts and oil.

Here is the bill I received which seems a bit off. The oil change looks about right but the time it took to replace the tie rod ends and do an alignment seems a lot longer than it should be, that said their hourly rate is so low that the final bill, thankfully, isn't outrageous.

The good:
- new tie rod ends installed
- oil change done
- alignment done

The bad:
- no re-indexing was done despite me telling them too, meaning that the torsion bars are cranked to the frame, but the front still sits about 1.5 inches lower than it should.
- the steering wheel was put on crooked
- the alignment was done based on online specs rather than sligned with the rear wheels as I'd asked
- I can still feel / hear metal on metal from the control arms (I even asked the mechanic how the bushings looked and he said "they're solid" to which I replied "they pulled apart in my hand" to which he responded "yeah but there's still enough in there")

[Mazdax605]

I don't know how much I can help Nick, but you are in my neighborhood, and I have lots of resourceful friends if need be we can help. Heck if my van keeps up the way it is acting it will be heading to the junk yard and you could possibly take parts off of it. Let me know if I can help.

Chris

[nxski]

I'm hoping it will be alright for the rest of the journey but thank you very much for the offer!